Who We Are: Driving Life Sciences Forward Through Cloud and IT Excellence

For the next three years, Simmons ran the New England operations for INX, until INX was acquired by a private equity company. For the following two years, Simmons led his own consulting company that focused on helping companies, such as Cisco, evolve their channel partner programs. Simmons then joined Dallas-based Lumenate in 2013, where he ran their New England operations and later managed their Cisco business nationally.

Over the last few years, it became very apparent that the IT market was rapidly changing, and the way businesses consume IT was changing along with it. It was also clear that the larger IT VARs were having a difficult time changing their business models to compete in today’s Cloud-based economy. This led to the creation of Pinnacle Technology Partners, a team of like-minded industry veterans that saw the need to help businesses better manage their IT assets, and secure their environments, as they make the transition to Cloud-based solutions.

Simmons is married with three daughters, and when he is not working, he enjoys watching their various sports activities (unless the Patriots are playing).

In 2000, Derheim joined a CEO of one his previous companies as a founding member of Internetwork Experts, to be later re-named INX, Inc. Derheim developed and launched INX’s Managed Services business in 2002, focused on managed network and VoIP services, and continued leading that organization until INX’s acquisition by private equity in 2011. With a passion for building services teams, Derheim joined Lumenate in early 2012 to build a managed services practice with an emphasis on data center, network and cyber-security services. Pinnacle Technology Partners acquired the managed services business in 2017 to add to its services portfolio in order to assist customers with managing networks and securing critical data.

Derheim has a B.S. in Marketing from the University of Arizona, is married with three daughters, serves as a lead coach and board member of the Frisco Heat Track Club, and is captain of an elite masters cycling team in Frisco, TX.

This experience led him to become IT Director for several leading network and data center companies, building advanced IT, networking, application, database, storage, compute, and security infrastructures.

Ransden subsequently held management positions with International Computerware Inc., later acquired by Lumenate, with broad responsibilities, including leading the company’s transition from a professional services company to a comprehensive consulting, solutions, and integration organization, and directed the establishment of new channel partner alliances and partnerships. Following the Lumenate acquisition, Ransden ran Sales and Consulting for the East Region.

The shift in how technology was being consumed over the past couple years, and the transition that technology partners would need to make to lead this new model, led Ransden to join the founding team of Pinnacle Technology Partners.

A 1991 graduate of the University at Albany, SUNY with a BS Degree in Management Information Systems, Ransden went on to earn a Masters in Management Information Systems in 1999 from Bentley University’s McCallum Graduate School of Business.

Not long after starting with NIS, he was tapped to manage the company’s EMC sales efforts. Virtualization was just beginning to proliferate data centers in 2005, and storage revenues at NIS spiked. That same year, NIS was acquired by a private equity firm and renamed Presidio Networked Solutions. From 2005-2008, the EMC practice grew to $40+ million in revenue. Mid-way through 2008, McElaney was named the first New England Director of Sales for Presidio. He managed a team that topped out at 19 reps and over $110M in revenue by 2012.

From 2013 to his departure from Presidio in July 2015, he recognized a distinct shift in how clients were engaging Presidio and other VARs. Cloud computing was impacting client decisions every day. The manner in which applications were being delivered was changing, and VARs weren’t making the pivot. This lead him to join in the formation of Pinnacle Technology Partners.